Stan Collymore agrees that Harry Kane dived to get Tottenham’s penalty against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

  • Collymore doesn’t understand why Kane went down
  • Acknowledges there was minimal contract
  • Claims Kane dived for penalty

The former Liverpool man, who doesn’t tend to throw Arsenal a bone very often, seemed pretty unimpressed with Kane’s actions during the North London Derby, pointing out how just because there’s some contract there, doesn’t mean the striker has to go down.

“He drives into the box, goes temporarily away from goal then crucially, slightly moves his right leg into the Arsenal defender,” Collymore wrote in his column for BoyleSports.

“Does the defender contact Kane? Yes! Does Kane’s body language mean a dive? For me, yes. Why? Because a player who slows down, moves a leg to draw contact, then goes down incredibly easily has dived.

“Again, there is nothing in the rule book that stipulates contact means you have the right to, could do or should go down. It is down to the player to decide whether to be honest, try to go past the defender and God forbid get a shot off.”

While there was minimal contract between Kane and Gabriel’s leg, Kane dragging his leg tells the whole story. If he was genuinely tripped, or ‘clipped’ as he put it, he wouldn’t have had to simulate anything.

The England international could have easily stayed on his feet, got a shot off and probably would have scored. However, despite only going 1-0 up through Eric Dier just minutes earlier, Kane decided in that second that he would prefer to go down.